Many financial institutions are seeing an uptick in fraud regarding savings bonds. The Treasury and its banking partners share the same goal of protecting U.S. citizens. To support that goal, the Treasury has updated The Guide to Cashing Savings Bonds (Off-site) to provide more flexibility to financial institutions that serve the citizens of this country.
There is one key change to this updated guide. Moving forward, a new option has been created for financial institutions to not cash savings bonds for both non-customers or new customers. Our Secret Service partners recommend that a customer be established for 12 months before cashing bonds at a financial institution. Where prior guidance directed financial institutions to cash bonds in both situations, the updated guide leaves this decision up to the financial institution.
Two paying agent informational calls have been scheduled to discuss this change.
- Thursday, February 24 at 10 a.m. CT
- Tuesday, March 1 at 2 p.m. CT
Please direct your customers to TreasuryDirect.gov (Off-site) for information about how to cash their bonds. As always, you can direct any customer or non-customer with questions directly to the Treasury via email (Off-site).
Most importantly, we want to thank you for your years of service in helping us provide our citizens a way to save and work towards becoming financially stable.
Action Item:
Financial institutions now have the option to not cash savings bonds for both non-customers or new customers. To learn more consult The Guide to Cashing Savings Bonds (Off-site)
